She is not an investigator.

"I don't blame you for not understanding faith deeply, but in any case, don't question your God. You just need to pray, pray for the coming of eternal night, worship the darkness! Worship the night!"

"..."

The conversation quickly faded away, and they seemed to have left. Even though Ling looked over, all she saw was a dead end, their figures had indeed vanished from the spot, probably because of some hidden door.

But Ling didn't have time to think about those things at the moment; everything they had just talked about kept replaying in her mind.

Without a doubt, the painter's daughter they were talking about was Krisuna. They seemed to be very wary of Krisuna, or rather, of what she possessed, which indirectly indicated that she was currently safe. However, she didn't quite understand either the so-called imprint or the matter concerning the painting. It seemed that Krisuna herself also had some special secrets. And most importantly, their goal seemed to be to trap the Special Investigations Division members in the sewers. The message that Thousand Faces had told her before, that there was only a dead end in the sewers, probably explained a lot.

She should have been suspicious much earlier, wondering how an injured police officer could escape from such a place, and how an ordinary detective could escape when even Passa was nowhere to be found.

But it's no use talking about that now. The most urgent thing is to find Pasa and the others, or simply leave this place and deal with this conspiracy first.

Ling didn't know if she could do it. She didn't have the fighting power of Passa. She was just an intelligence officer in the Special Investigations Department. She didn't even have much ammunition for her sidearm, and her special equipment wasn't for combat. She would be in danger even when facing a slightly larger number of believers. How could she possibly easily resolve this huge conspiracy?

She can't do it.

But she had to do it.

Even if you can't do it, you have to do it.

Instead of continuing to aimlessly search for Pasa and Igris in the sewers, she had more important things to do right now.

"...May God bless me."

She doesn't believe in God, but that depends on whether she goes to church or not, not that she won't pray to Him at such times.

Ling took a deep breath, walked out of the corner, and came to the wall where the two people who had just been talking were. After a brief look, she noticed something was wrong.

Looking at the distinctly colored (not identical) bricks in front of her, Rin slightly doubted and pushed them with her strength. The next moment, the stone wall in front of her suddenly moved. As she stepped into it, a cold aura emanated from it, causing her to frown slightly.

She no longer appears to be in the sewers, but this place is still underground and the temperature is very low.

"…wine cellar."

She remembered.

This is the basement of the church, and the empty space has been turned into a wine cellar. The Rotten Coral Bar gets its wine from here.

"besides…"

She frowned slightly, held her breath, and walked to a pot of sunflowers.

"…sunset flowers."

There are many ways to spread the spores of the sunset sunflower. Whether it is to personally take the sunset sunflower out and give it to the corresponding person to attract attention, or to secretly transmit the spores of the sunset sunflower into the bodies of every town dweller through alcohol.

Although the effect may be weakened, it is still effective.

"As expected... the culprit is Father Constantine."

Ling dared not linger there any longer and hurriedly went to the exit of the wine cellar. However, she did not rush out but listened to the sounds at the door for a while. After confirming that there were no sounds, she quickly slipped out.

Seeing the familiar sunlight calmed her down considerably, and just as she had guessed, she was currently near the entrance to the church's wine cellar, with no one around, so no one would notice her suddenly emerging from the wine cellar.

The ceremony will take place at night, and the sun has not yet set. Although it won't be long before it does, she will have no chance if she acts rashly now.

She planned to go back to the police station to retrieve some ammunition and, while she was there, some important "little things."

Most importantly… she also needed to find the injured, so-called “police officer”.

Let's leave the church first, at least for now.

……

"Ms. Ling, you're back? How did things go?"

There were many police officers stationed near the police station. Although she ordered all the sewer exits to be surrounded when she left, the police station was also one of the protected targets.

"Notify everyone to retreat to the police station and await my orders. Grab your weapons and ammunition; we may be facing a tough battle... Where is the wounded officer now?"

The police officer, who was suddenly told that he was going to war, was a little stunned, but he still answered quickly.

"According to regulations, personnel involved in special operations need to be placed in temporary custody rooms, and doctors are currently treating him."

Ling frowned slightly, but simply nodded without saying anything.

"Alright, go and tell everyone to gather here in thirty minutes."

"Yes!"

Watching her leave, Ling immediately changed the ammunition in her sidearm, loaded it, and stormed into the temporary detention room.

Just as the police officer said, the doctor was treating his injuries here. He was startled when Ling suddenly barged in and hurriedly stood up.

"Officer, what's wrong?"

"You go out first."

Without giving her a chance to react, Ling dragged the doctor out and slammed the door of the temporary detention room shut, pointing her gun directly at the innocent-looking police officer.

Tell me, who are you!

"Ms. Ling...? I don't understand what you mean! Put down your gun! We can talk things over!"

"Screw negotiable! I'm only giving you three seconds! Three!"

"Tsk, swearing is not ladylike behavior."

Before Ling could continue counting down, the police officer suddenly ignored his injuries and stood up from his chair.

The next moment, his skin seemed to peel off, becoming incredibly loose, and then he simply ripped it off, revealing a blank face in Ling's ever-widening pupils.

"It's nice to meet you, officer."

Like those self-proclaimed gentlemen, he politely bowed to Ling and gently dusted off his suit.

"You may call me... Faceless Man?"

The Fools of the Gods—The Worship of Eternal Night: Chapter Nineteen, The Sun Sets

"Don't be too nervous, I mean no harm."

The Faceless Man indeed has no face. His face looks quite flat and has no features. It should be an extremely terrifying face, but it doesn't look too scary. This seems to be largely due to his behavior, since he looks very friendly.

"I'm just here to help. My job is simply to lead you into the sewers. What happens after that is none of my business, officer. You should believe me, right?"

Ling did not put down her weapon, but her hostility had indeed lessened considerably.

The Faceless Man is a documented anomaly, and one of the few creatures considered a friendly anomaly. Even though he did stand against the Special Investigations Department this time, that doesn't mean he's evil, since anomalies have different views on good and evil than humans.

They don't know that helping cult members is evil; they only know that helping others is righteous and kind.

The Faceless Man may have been manipulated, but in any case, he is still an anomaly, and it is impossible to simply let down one's guard against him.

Do you know their plans?

"Of course I know, but I can't tell you because I made a promise with them that I wouldn't tell anyone about this plan. It's not something a good person would do to break their word."

“They are not good people; you are aiding and abetting evil.”

“But I am not human, I don’t care what they are planning to do, I will only do what I want to do, what I believe is right.”

He smiled, and although his expression was not visible, his laughter was exceptionally hearty, as if he had thought of something very interesting.

"Do you know Lin Dao, my wife? I met a clown in the waterway. He was... well, how should I put it, the exact opposite of me. He was a complete villain, but his jokes were really funny. Do you want to hear them?"

Ling wasn't in the mood for jokes, but she remained silent.

"Okay... that's what he told me."

The faceless man coughed lightly and spoke slowly.

Some people believe in the night, some believe in darkness, and some believe in the moon. These are seemingly unrelated things, but their followers all pray to the same deity. Can you guess who it is?

Ling remained silent for a moment, then shook her head slightly, expressing her confusion.

"He is the sea god! Hahahaha!"

"What the hell...?"

Seeing the Faceless Man suddenly burst into wild laughter, Ling couldn't help but frown.

"Oh, isn't that funny? Looks like you have no sense of humor."

The faceless man stroked his chin, looking somewhat unsatisfied.

“You want to resolve this ritual, right? I mean, stop them.”

Ling nodded, and the Faceless Man clapped his hands, quite satisfied with Ling's answer.

“I can’t tell you his plan, but I can tell you for sure that the girl is the key to this ceremony. When the moon rises and the mist envelops the area, the second moon will rise into the sky again, and the sea will once again fall into chaos. The tides will submerge this place and turn it into a new painting… Can I call it an underwater city? That would be nice.”

"What you're saying is simply impossible. There's no sea around here, not even a large lake. If this place were to be submerged, then the world would never have any land again."

"Oh...it seems so, you're right."

He had no intention of refuting Ling; he simply put his hands behind his back and said, without a trace of humor, "..."

"Unfortunately, I can't swim."

"…What?"

"It's nothing, that's all I can say. I'm also curious about what you'll do. Hmm... what will that bad-tempered man do? He'll probably just rush to the ceremony site, kill everyone, and disrupt the ceremony, or he'll save the girl, then welcome the night, wait for the moon to rise, and hope the ocean will flood this place... maybe? Would you do that?"

Ling's brows furrowed even deeper as an even more indescribable thought slowly spread through her mind and became increasingly clear.

"...You mean, the real disaster isn't this ritual? Damn it... I don't understand what you're talking about at all... Can't you just tell me everything?!"

"Ugh, you guys are always so impatient."

"Countless lives are in my hands right now! How can you expect me to have the patience to listen to your nonsense!"

The faceless man gently shook his head and turned away.

"They never asked you to save them."

I shouldn't have wasted my time with you!

Ling turned around angrily to leave, but the Faceless Man called her back again.

"Consider it a good deed. Qi Youqing is reminding you that everything you see is not necessarily reality. Just because it's unbelievable or hard to believe doesn't mean it's false. Be more skeptical and think more... You should be able to find a way out of this predicament. If you can't, it's okay. Humanity won't expect you to save them, and the mistakes you make won't be borne by all of humanity."

The faceless man turned slightly to the side and tugged at his suit, tidying up his attire as if preparing to leave.

"Giving up is also an option."

……